CVE-2022-49981 HID: hidraw: fix memory leak in hidraw_release()

Medium 5.5 Published 18 Jun 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A memory leak in the Linux kernel's HID raw driver allows attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a denial of service.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2022-49981?

CVE-2022-49981 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

HID: hidraw: fix memory leak in hidraw_release()

Free the buffered reports before deleting the list entry.

BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88810e72f180 (size 32): comm "softirq", pid 0, jiffies 4294945143 (age 16.080s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 64 f3 c6 6a d1 88 07 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 d..j............ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace: [<ffffffff814ac6c3>] kmemdup+0x23/0x50 mm/util.c:128 [<ffffffff8357c1d2>] kmemdup include/linux/fortify-string.h:440 [inline] [<ffffffff8357c1d2>] hidraw_report_event+0xa2/0x150 drivers/hid/hidraw.c:521 [<ffffffff8356ddad>] hid_report_raw_event+0x27d/0x740 drivers/hid/hid-core.c:1992 [<ffffffff8356e41e>] hid_input_report+0x1ae/0x270 drivers/hid/hid-core.c:2065 [<ffffffff835f0d3f>] hid_irq_in+0x1ff/0x250 drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c:284 [<ffffffff82d3c7f9>] __usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0xf9/0x230 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1670 [<ffffffff82d3cc26>] usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x1b6/0x1d0 drivers/usb/core/hcd.c:1747 [<ffffffff82ef1e14>] dummy_timer+0x8e4/0x14c0 drivers/usb/gadget/udc/dummy_hcd.c:1988 [<ffffffff812f50a8>] call_timer_fn+0x38/0x200 kernel/time/timer.c:1474 [<ffffffff812f5586>] expire_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1519 [inline] [<ffffffff812f5586>] __run_timers.part.0+0x316/0x430 kernel/time/timer.c:1790 [<ffffffff812f56e4>] __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1768 [inline] [<ffffffff812f56e4>] run_timer_softirq+0x44/0x90 kernel/time/timer.c:1803 [<ffffffff848000e6>] __do_softirq+0xe6/0x2ea kernel/softirq.c:571 [<ffffffff81246db0>] invoke_softirq kernel/softirq.c:445 [inline] [<ffffffff81246db0>] __irq_exit_rcu kernel/softirq.c:650 [inline] [<ffffffff81246db0>] irq_exit_rcu+0xc0/0x110 kernel/softirq.c:662 [<ffffffff84574f02>] sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0xa2/0xd0 arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1106 [<ffffffff84600c8b>] asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x1b/0x20 arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:649 [<ffffffff8458a070>] native_safe_halt arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:51 [inline] [<ffffffff8458a070>] arch_safe_halt arch/x86/include/asm/irqflags.h:89 [inline] [<ffffffff8458a070>] acpi_safe_halt drivers/acpi/processor_idle.c:111 [inline] [<ffffffff8458a070>] acpi_idle_do_entry+0xc0/0xd0 drivers/acpi/processor_idle.c:554

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49981?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-49981?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2022-49981 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49981 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49981, GHSA-g583-r33f-x62j, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49981.